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March 2006 . . . Intro New Books Timetable for this Year March Garden   A few recipes : The Attack of the Zombie Spaghetti What to do with 1001 Zucchini Including: Ginger and Zucchini Jam Sweet and Sour Zucchini Zucchini Curry Mock Ginger (old colonial recipe) Orange and zucchini Muffins Zucchini Fruit Slice Chocolate and Orange Zucchini cake (very moist and rich) Sticky Marmalade and Zucchini Cake (very good- a bit like a rich Christmas cake) Never Fail zucchini SoufflÈ Sweet and Sour Zucchini Pickles Vegetable Bake (with zucchini) and more ...   Intro          Woke up this morning to 1642 currawongs, singing about a metre from my ear. There are worse things to wake up to (pneumatic drills, a helicopter accidentally spraying herbicide here instead of next door, or a small voice saying 'Mum! I didn't mean to do it ...) But it would have been nice if the currawongs had perched just a little way down the orchard before they launched into the Hallelujah Chorus.          Currawongs mean it's autumn, and they've come down from the mountains to overwinter here. Saw a couple of grey currawongs last week- grey currawongs are either wimps, or they spend the summer higher-up than the ordinary currawongs and so head down to the valley earlier.          There are other hints of autumn too- the sunlight suddenly glowing through the branches, instead of glaring down on top of them, so the valley is filled with streaks and glints of light, quite different from summer's. And trees turning yellow, though have a feeling many of the yellow leaves are due to drought, not autumn. The creek dried up about a month ago, faster and more completely than we've ever seen it. So we are living on tank water again, and the animals are drinking from sludgy puddles among the rocks, and the sky is that soft and glorious autumn blue without even a hint of cloud. Can't really believe in floods elsewhere in the world in weather like this. Refusing to panic this time. I've seen dead avocadoes and leafless lemons come back to life in three wet days. I reckon I wilt a lot worse than the garden.          (Just looked out the window to see a cloud of red browed finches on the grass seeds, and about 100 tiny silver eyes getting stuck into the emu berries.) Other news: Bryan is converting the old tool shed into his idea of a perfect shed, with the assistance of Mike and Rick and Mischa (Staffordshire fox terrier cross) who dutifully wakes up at 10 am to announce smoko with a flurry of barks and snores the rest of the time.   Wombat News          We haven't actually seen Mothball this month. But she's been out earlier the last week - can hear her chomping just outside the bedroom about the time we turn the light off. She's a wombat of habit: sits by her hole for a while  dozing, has a mouthful of grass, then a good scratch, then starts eating the kikuya that only grows between our bedroom and the vegetable garden. She loves kikuya- must have the perfect toughness for a wombat to really feel she's eaten something. She doesn't like the patch of soft lawn grass down on the flat at all - kikuya first preference, then the native grasses.          Grunter- Mothball's first offspring- has been getting stuck into the fallen apples down on the flat. Every morning there are great fat droppings that are mostly semi digested apple hunks. He's getting fussy though- like the big crisp tart apples, and won't touch the Delicious or Wandin Glory at all.   New Books          The first copy of Macbeth and Son has arrived, though it won't be in the shops till April. Have no idea how good it is. Six months ago I thought it was the best thing I've written. Now I've gone over it so many times that it's as familiar as yesterday's socks and I can't judge it any more.          It's about truth, mostly, and does it matter:  a kid who has cheated in an entrance exam for a prestigious school, with his stepfather who mouths platitudes on a current affairs show, who dreams of Lulach, stepson of the real Macbeth 1,000 years ago. But this is a very different Macbeth from the one Shakespeare wrote about. Did Shakespeare deliberately lie about who and what Macbeth was/ Does it matter, so many years later. Do lies matter, if good comes from them?          Have just done the revisions for the Goat that Sailed the World- the incredible (true) story of Captain Cook's goat. Just about to start the revisions for How to Grow Your own Spaceship, also non fiction, though it won't be out till early next year. And gearing up my brain to plunge into the next historical novel in about a week's time.   Schedule for this year: I'm cutting down the number of talks I give these days, for health reasons- I can no longer mange to give talks without a microphone, and it's amazing how many school and library microphones cut out after twenty minutes, with a dead battery or loose connection! (and it's really hard to just shrug and walk away with a mob of kids waiting, so the temptation is to keep talking no matter what the consequences.) And lately the sheer process of a day's travelling each way is just too much to do it too often.          But this is what the year looks like:   Wednesday March 22 Canberra launch of the Australian Reading Challenge- a fundraising effort for indigenous communities focussed on improving literacy levels Sunday March 26 2.00 pm talk at the National Library on the stories behind the books - the true story of Macbeth and Honeysuckle Creek, and of course Mothball wombat (contact National Library Canberra) Friday March 31 Brisbane; Booked Out Seminar on Teaching English (contacted Booked Out Brisbane or Melbourne) May  22-28 Sydney Writer's festival: not sure what events yet Saturday 20 May Early Childhood Services conference June 22-25 Fremantle W.A. a series of talks for kids and adults on - everything from books to chooks to wombats and gardens at the Fremantle Arts centre. Contact the Arts centre for more details. Saturday 4 November Talk at the Open Garden Seminar at Major's Creek, NSW. Details from the Open Garden Scheme Sunday 12 November launch of Josephine Wants to Dance and performance at the Bungendore School Fare, plus a talk at the Wildcare Stall there.   The March Garden Plant:  Garlic, spring flowering bulbs, broad beans, winter lettuce, radish, spinach, turnips,  broccoli seedlings for spring eating beans, primulas, pansies, and maybe a mass of sweet William, Canterbury bells or candytuft for spring. Watch out for:  Prune off dead roses so you get an autumn flush.  Prune  back established mildewed grape vines too; young ones though won't take this drastic treatment, so cosset them. Pests and disease: use fruit fly traps, fruit fly nets and splash on baits for fruit fly in fruit and tomatoes Use seaweed, chamomile, milk and bicarb and other organic sprays for fungal problems, plus hot water dipping of fruit- a quick two second splash to get rid of brown rot. Biological control agents for weeds and pests may be released Avoid:  Too much heat; garden in the early morning or late afternoon; wear a hat and water and mulch well to keep your garden cooler too. Store: Wrap apples, pears etc for storage individually in newspaper.  This will keep them free of fruit fly and codling moth from other stored fruit and sop up any juice from rotting ones.  Pick and dry soy beans and other dried beans. Cook:  Give up on jams, jellies, dried stuff.  You have enough. Make:  Perfume with the last of the roses   Things to do in autumn 1. Plan the flowers. I have finally worked out how to have flowers blooming all through winter.  The secret in cool climates is to have the flowers well grown and just starting to bloom in late autumn.  If you put them in too late you don't get flowers till spring; too early and they don't get big enough before they bloom to flower long and gorgeously. Ditto spinach and other cool climate crops for that matter.          Which means that the date you plant flowers like primulas and pansies will vary from garden to garden, and from year to year.  If every year was an exact copy of the one before gardening wouldn't... I was going to write, wouldn't be fun, but blast it, it would be a heck of lot more fun, I would LOVE an exact weather prophet, human or computer.          Anyway, bung in flowers that you want to bloom through winter now and see what happens.  Make a note of what to do differently next year (unless by some miracle you plant on exactly the right day, in which case make a note to do it again and hope Aunt Ethel isn't visiting that weekend so you forget about the garden till it's too late). 2.  Plant veg          If your climate is more than a cardie-over-the-shoulders-even-in -July cold, then most of the stuff you plant now won't crop till spring – broccoli, cabbages, caulies. But don't put off planting them till spring, because they'll get bigger, fatter and more succulent if you put them in now.          I have NEVER managed to plant enough broccoli.  I suspect even a hectare wouldn't be too much, it's such great stuff to give away too. But also bung in caulies, endives (too bitter to eat in hot temperatures and even if they don't grow large are a great winter nibble), kale - which tastes like sulphur when its hot (kale is a sort of ancestral cabbage, non-hearting.  Use the young leaves for coleslaw and the older ones like cabbage), pak choi and tatsoi and kohl rabi if you're going to have another 50 odd frost free days.  Plus red cos lettuce (red cos are hardier to both heat and cold than green ones) if you think you've another warm month or two ahead of you. 3. Protect the vulnerable          Every year I plant a whole heap of things I KNOW will be killed by frost - and each year I'm wrong about a few of them, surviving tattered but still green leafed into spring.          This is partly because far more plants survive the cold than conventional wisdom suggests (i.e. tamarilloes, citrus, avocados, sapotes, custard apples as long as they are sheltered by other trees from cold winds) and I like to test what actually DOES happen, as opposed to what horticultural manuals say will happen, and partly because they are somewhat cosseted. How to Cosset a Frost Prone Plant a. Plant it by a large heat retaining or reflecting rock or body of water, or where larger trees and shrubs will shelter it during winter. I can plant far more frost sensitive plants now than I could when I was just establishing this garden, even though if anything thee winters are colder, simply because the 'shelter plants'; are now well established. b. Clean away summer mulch - mulch attracts frost - but if it is a small plant, put a wire guard around it and fill the guard with dead bracken or hay, very loosely packed, as a blanket on extra cold nights.  Remove during the day (this is only worth it  for very young plants, that should become more frost resistant as they get older and their root systems grow larger.) 4.  Store the surplus          Which here means zucchini zucchini (See below) tomatoes and apple apples apples. 5. Have a last swim in the creek before it freezes our toes off.  Try to remember where all the herbaceous perennials are - i.e. the plants that are going to disappear over winter.  It is too easy to plant something in the convenient bare space in winter then have them argue it out the next year.   A Few Recipes The Attack of the Zombie Spaghetti          I've just been writing about zombie spaghetti in Boojum Bark. Actually I suspect all spaghetti is zombie spaghetti- it comes to life and tries to wriggle away as soon as you lift up a forkful. But after a few pages I decided it really need a recipe - Spaghetti or other pasta  (zombie flesh) 8 large tomatoes, skinned and quartered (the blood and gore, naturally) 1 tsp brown sugar if they're shop bought ones 1 cup basil, chopped  (mould : what zombie's get if they forget to shave ... all over) 8 cloves garlic, chopped (bits of bone) 4 tb extra virgin olive oil (lubrication for old limbs) 1 tsp balsamic vinegar  (general ooze) 8 stuffed olives (eyeballs- optional) shaved pecorino or parmesan cheese, or crumbled ricotta (elderly earwax)            Boil spag.          While spag is cooking put oil in a pan, add garlic, cook for 30 seconds, add tomatoes, sugar, basil, vinegar, cook for three minutes, no more.          Pour sauce on cooked spaghetti; scatter on cheese of choice. Arrange eyeballs, sorry, olives, two on each serve. Eat fast before spaghetti fights back.   How to cope with 1765 zucchini          Zucchini have never heard of birth control. If you harvest one zucchini you had probably better prepare to harvest many zucchini - to make zucchini cake, zucchini pikelets and foist them onto your neighbours.          The trouble is that early in the season it seems you'll never get a zucchini - so you plant six bushes - then when they start to bear properly you find you have zucchini taking over the garden, great monsters lurking undiscovered under leaves, turning into marrows overnight.          The younger you pick zucchini the better.  Pick them when they are no bigger than your little finger - so they snap rather than bend if you twist them.  At this stage zucchini can be cut thinly into salads - later on they get too coarse and rubbery.  Bigger zucchini are best thinly sliced and stir fried with onion and garlic and olive oil, and covered with grated cheese and baked in the oven.          Monsters lurking under the bushes can be hollowed out and stuffed.  They also make good substitutes for rubber duckies in the bath - play submarines instead.  They also make excellent shillelaghs.          Eat the flowers steamed with lemon and oil, or stuffed with rice and simmered in stock; or dipped in batter and deep fried with either lemon juice or garlic mayonnaise, or a little icing sugar and lemon juice as a sweet.          Substitute grated zucchini for carrot in carrot cake; for pumpkin in pumpkin scones; for onions in pickled onions (slice thinly); for cucumber in salad.          Try grated zucchini and horseradish on bread (enjoyed by people who dislike both raw zucchini and horseradish).          Add a quarter grated raw zucchini to bread and cake recipes to moisten and lighten them; thinly slice zucchini and deep fry them.          Stuff zucchini with fried rice and deep fry them or simmer in oil and lemon juice or stock.   Zucchini Leather          Cut the zucchini into thin strips, dip in boiling water, dry in the sun till rubbery.  Store between greaseproof paper.  Use in stews or eat them by themselves - use them instead of crackers for dips or peanut sauce.   Sweet and Sour Zucchini Ingredients:  10 small zucchini, 1 bulb garlic, peeled, 1 large onion, 4 tbsp olive oil,  4 tbsp wine vinegar,   3 tbsp water, 1 tbsp pine nuts, 1 tbsp sultanas.          SautÈ chopped onion and garlic in the oil till the onion is soft. Add the finely sliced zucchini and stir for three minutes, add other ingredients except for the pine nuts and simmer for ten minutes.  Add the pine nuts and serve hot.   Stuffing for zucchini Mix: half a cup veal and pork mince,  2 tbsp breadcrumbs, 1 teaspoon tomato paste, 1 small egg, 1 tsp chopped parsley, a little chopped sage, and a fair bit more chopped fresh thyme or oregano (you can cheat here by using stuffing mix instead of the herbs and breadcrumbs - but it won't taste as good), 4 cloves finely chopped or crushed garlic.          Mix well with your fingers till smooth.          Cut zucchini in half and stuff in mixture. Top with a little parmesan cheese.          Place in an oiled baking dish and bake 40 min in a moderate oven (200 C).  Serve hot by themselves or with tomato purÈe.   Hot zucchini salad          Fry thinly sliced zucchini FAST in very hot olive oil till lightly browned.  Dress at once with 1 part lemon juice, 3 parts olive oil, salt, pepper with a little chopped garlic and chopped mint added.  Serve at once before the zucchini softens or leave to marinate (and soften) and serve cold.   Portable Zucchini Soup          Okay, so you can't stand any more zucchinis by the end of summer. But by spring you may be very glad of some portable zucchini soup.          Take six cups of chicken bones; cover with water and boil for three hours, adding more water as needed. Add six cups of chopped zucchinis. Boil till they dissolve; stir like mad. Strain; reduce to about three cups of liquid. Pour onto a greased tray; cut into squares when cold, dust with flour and wrap in greaseproof paper. Store in a sealed jar. To reconstitute the zucchini soup  pour  a cup of water onto every dessertspoon sized square; simmer for five minutes and serve.   Luscious Zucchini Preserve 250 grams sliced zucchini 1 chopped red or green capsicum 3 chopped tomatoes 1 large chopped onion a small dried red chilli 10 chopped cloves of garlic half a cup of olive oil          Fry the tomatoes in a little olive oil till they're soft and reduced by about three quarters, this takes about 20 minutes. Add the other ingredients, simmer 10 minutes- the zucchini should be firm, not squashy. Bottle. Seal, keep in the fig or a cool larder. Serve over pasta or rice or sliced boiled potatoes   Zucchini in Sweet and Sour sauce          Cut 500grams zucchini  into matchsticks, sprinkle with salt. Leave for 2 hours, drain and dry. Cook with a little olive oil till nearly soft, add a good grate of black pepper, a sprinkle of cinnamon, a tablespoon of brown sugar and four tablespoons of red wine vinegar. Boil 5 minutes. Bottle and seal.. The sauce should cover the zucchini.  If it doesn't boil equal parts of vinegar and olive oil and pour over them.          Keep this in the fridge if you are keeping it for more than a week.   Ginger and Zucchini Jam          Take a kilo of chopped zucchini; add a kilo of sugar and the juice and zest of three lemons or limes and a dessertspoon of grated ginger or half that of powdered. Boil till it turns rich brown. Only add water if needed.   Sweet and Sour Zucchini 1 kilo sliced melon 700grms sugar half a pint of red wine vinegar          Boil the pieces in water for one minute; refresh under cold water. Boil the vinegar and sugar for 10 minutes; put the veg in bottles, add the vinegar leave for two days. Now reboil the vinegar for 20 minutes; add the veg and boil for 5 minutes. Bottle and seal again.   Zucchini Curry 1 teaspoonful: cumin, coriander, turmeric, garam masala, chilli to taste (I use two chopped red chillies for a medium hot curry). 2 cups peeled chopped tomatoes or 1 can tomatoes 2 cups chopped zucchini 2 onions, chopped 12 cloves garlic, chopped 3 tablespoons olive oil          Cook the onions and garlic slowly in the oil till soft, add the spices and stir well for a few minutes.  Don't let them burn.  Add the other ingredients and  simmer till the zucchini is cooked.          For the best flavour leave the curry in the fridge overnight and reheat the next day.   Mock Ginger          This is an old colonial standby.          Chop your zucchini.  Add a syrup of two cups sugar to one cup of water and a dessert spoon of grated ginger or powdered ginger.  Boil for an hour, pour over the zucchini,. Put the lot in the oven till the zucchini is cooked.  Bottle and keep cool.   Orange and Zucchini Muffins 200 gm butter or marg quarter cup milk 1 cup brown sugar 1 tb orange rind 1 tb powdered ginger 3 eggs 2 cups self raising flour half cup grated zucchini half cup orange juice orange syrup (See below)          Beat butter, sugar, ginger and orange rind; add eggs one by one; add flour, milk, orange juice and zucchini. Mix gently. Bake in greased muffin pan or paper cases for about 35 minutes at 200C till light brown on top. remove from pan. Pour hot syrup over the hot muffins. Syrup 1 cup castor sugar two thirds of a  cup orange juice one third of a cup water          Combine all the syrup ingredients in a pan; simmer and stir till sugar dissolves.   Zucchini Fruit Slice 185 gm butter 1 cup brown sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla 1 and three quarter cups plain flour 1 and a half teaspoons baking powder 1 tsp mixed spice 1 cup chopped dates half cup chopped sultanas half cup chopped walnuts half cup coconut 2 cups grated raw zucchini Cream butter and sugar; add eggs; mix in other ingredients. Spread into  greased and floured tray; bake at 200c for 30-40 minutes. Test with a skewer. Cool a little before turning out of the tray. Cut into slices with a sharp knife while still warm, but out of the container, so help prevent crumbling.   Chocolate and Orange Zucchini Cake 185 butter/margarine 1 cup brown sugar 2 eggs  one and  a half cups self raising flour one and  a half cups grated zucchini 2 tsp grated orange rind quarter cup cocoa three quarters of a cup milk/natural yoghurt/cream/ sour cream/orange juice (each gives a slightly different result- the orange juice gives a more chocolaty texture)          Cream butter and sugar; add eggs; fold in other ingredients. Grease and flour a cake tin; pour in batter; bake at 200C for about 50 minutes till it feels firm and springs back when you press the top lightly. Leave 5 minutes before turning out on rack. Ice when cool   Rich Chocolate Icing 125 gm dark chocolate, melted quarter cup sour cream  half cup icing sugar, or more if seems runny Icing: Mix all ingredients. Refrigerate till mixture is thick enough to spread. Add more sugar if it isn't thick after an hour.   Sticky Marmalade and Zucchini Cake 1 cup prunes, chopped and seeded (or dried apricots if you prefer- but you really can't notice the prunes!) 1 cup grated raw zucchini (or carrot or beetroot) 1 cup dates, chopped and pitted (You can't notice them either!) half cup sultanas half cup currants 275 gm butter 1 x 395 gm tin condensed milk  1 cup plain flour  1 cup SR flour 4 tb cumquat marmalade (or other jam, marmalade is best) 1 cup water          Put fruit in a saucepan with the water, condensed milk and butter, 3 tb marmalade. Simmer for five minutes. Cool a bit. Stir in the flours.  Place in a greased floured cake tin- or line it with baking paper-then lay a sheet of baking paper or alfoil over the tin so the cake doesn't brown too much. Bake it at 170 C for two and a quarter hours.          Take out of the oven; take off the paper or alfoil. Let it cool for ten minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Brush over 1 tb heated marmalade, or ice, or just leave plain. Keep in a sealed container for one to two weeks.          This cake is very moist, very rich and very good for you!   Sweet and Sour Zucchini Pickles 2 kg zucchini, sliced 6 cups white vinegar 1 cup sugar 1 small red chilli 2 tb yellow mustard seeds 2 tb black mustard seeds 1 tb black peppercorns 1tsp turmeric 1 very large or two  medium onions, chopped 6 cloves garlic, chopped 3 whole cloves Boil everything except zucchini for five minutes; add the zucchini; boil 1 minute; bottle at once.          Seal; keep in a cool place; eat after three days but better after a week or two; throw out of they look or smell odd or cloudy; keep the jar in the fridge when opened. NB make sure the zucchini are quite covered at all times in the jar by the sweet vinegar mixture.   Never Fail Zucchini SoufflÈ          Mix 1 cup hot mashed spuds (No milk  butter etc added) 4 egg yolks 1 cup grated zucchini 1 cup cream or light sour cream 2 tb butter 2 tb grated cheddar cheese 1 tb chopped chives (or parsley if no chives)          Now mix in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Place in an oven dish (preheated for best result) and bake at 225C for twenty minutes or until, just set and crisply golden on top. eat at once.   Spiced Veg          Cut pumpkin, zucchini and sweet potato (yellow and white) into cubes. Place in an oiled baking tray. Sprinkle on the mixture below- about 1 tsp does 3 or so cups of veg.          Bake at 200C for about three quarters of an hour or till veg are light brown and the kitchen smells almost unbearably delicious. Stir a few times while cooking. Eat hot.   Or, cover with natural yoghurt before cooking for a richer dish   Or, add chicken stock, simmer instead of bake and turn it into a spiced veg soup   Or, add fried mince and natural yoghurt before baking for a beef and veg baked curry.   Spice Mix Mix: 2 tsp coriander seed- powdered or whole 2 tsp cumin- powdered half tsp fenugreek-powdered 3 tsp turmeric- powdered half tsp cardamom- whole seed 1 tsp dried garlic 1 tsp mustard seed 1 dried small red chilli, crumbled to bits          Blend roughly- not too fine- or just press with the back of a desert spoon till they crumble a bit. Store in a sealed jar. Don't use for 48 hours so the flavours can blend.